Finished Object: Maddy’s Birthday Dress
My friend Rebecca had her new baby, Madelyn, yesterday. She is perfect and adorable. The dress will hardly do her justice.
Pattern: My own
Size: 3-6 mo. (16" chest, meant to fit snugly)
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed Cotton (100 percent cotton; 150 yds per 65 g skein) in mallard and maize
Yardage: 140 yds mallard, approx 100 yds maize
Source: Jimmy Beans Wool
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) circular needles
Gauge: 5.5 sts and 8 rows = 4" in stockinette stitch
Notes: Since Maddy is a summer baby, I designed this with the image in my mind of her hanging out on a pretty summer’s day by the inflatable pool, watching while her big sister splashes around in the water. I think it turned out pretty cute, given that I pretty much made it up as I went along.
I cast on provisionally for this dress and ended up knitting in both directions, first upward until I had finished the tube for the top, then downward for the skirt, and then upward again to make the straps. This method allowed me to (a) cast on an almost random number of stitches and knit for a while before deciding how many I needed to decrease for the top and (b) use up as much yarn as possible for the skirt part without running out.
I like the Skinny Dyed cotton okay — the colors, in particular, are just lovely — but it’s sort of a strange yarn. It seems to be made up of about a million teensy strands of cotton plied together with very little twist, and this means that you have to be careful to catch them all on every stitch. If you miss even one strand, your fabric will show it. Nonetheless, with pointy needles and in stockinette, this was not a big deal. I’d use it again for a baby garment.
Onward to the next baby knit! I have a little sweater in the works to use up leftovers. Stay tuned.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
So CUTE! Hope you’ll post a pic of Madelyn wearing it sometime. Also, I like the idea of knitting up and down to maximize the yarn.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Wow - you have been doing a LOT of baby knitting - lucky Madelyn! I too would love to see a picture of her in the dress, when she’s ready for public exposure
It’s a very sweet dress, I like the contrast in the skinny stripes on the top & thicker ones at the bottom.
May 31st, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I like the way the stripes change from skirt to bodice on Maddy’s little dress. You are speeding along amazingly. I’m going to be doing some baby knits too, so I’m particularly interested in what you’ve been doing. The baby had its legs crossed on the ultrasound so the sex is still a mystery. I can appreciate blue being neutral, but I’m still waiting to find out if I can knit somethng really girly.